SEASIDE -- Twenty-eight students in business suits sat poised at a conference table in the back room of the Panetta Institute, listening as Capitola Mayor Stephanie Harlan spoke about affordable housing. Most of the students had business cards that read "CEO" or "President."

They shared their experiences in running local governments with student body presidents and other elected student leaders from 26 California schools, mostly from the California State University system.

Twenty-one presentations from government, religious and community leaders are scheduled, on topics ranging from consensus building to criminal justice. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and professor Richard Kezirian were the moderators.

The goal of the seminar is to inspire young leaders to careers in public service, according to Panetta.

In 1997, after Panetta's tenure as chief of staff in the Clinton administration, he and his wife, Sylvia, moved back to Monterey. They both recognized a vacuum in interest in public service careers. "I was teaching here (at Cal State Monterey Bay) and at Santa Clara University," Panetta said. "Based on the papers I was seeing and the comments in the classroom, my sense was that the students were generally turned off from getting involved in public service. We decided to go and do something about it."

Since the start of the leadership seminar in 2000, nearly 390 students have participated. "There's no question that what we do is to help the students think how leaders think," said Sylvia Panetta, co-chair and CEO of the Panetta Institute. "We also encourage the students to continue their education."

Lane, a former mayor of Santa Cruz, gave the students candid advice about working in local politics. He listed challenges such as the lack of continuity from having a rotating mayor each year.

Lane encouraged students to bring an entrepreneurial approach to thinking about politics. "Let's not have the same political discourse where nothing happens, and let's think of a new way to talk about it," he said. "The key thing is to make things clear about what you don't want and what you do want, and then go out and pursue it instead of just hoping it will happen."

Trial by fire

Bryant also shared her experiences in office.

Six weeks into office, Bryant faced a community crisis when detective Sgt. Loran "Butch" Baker and detective Elizabeth Butler were shot and killed in the line of duty while investigating an alleged sexual assault.

"All of a sudden I went in front of hundreds of cameras," Bryant told the students. "I slept in my office, and had people bring me changes of clothes. In times of crisis, you struggle and you do things you never thought you'd have the capability to do."

Rohullah Latif, the student body president of Cal State Fullerton, is familiar with times of crisis.

Along with his mother and two sisters, Latif moved to the U.S. in 2001, seeking refuge from Afghanistan. They lived with an aunt in La Habra, in a one-bedroom apartment. The family did not speak English.

"My mom was a teacher and nurse in Afghanistan, but when the war happened, when the Soviets invaded and the Taliban rose up ... she lost everything. We lost everything," Latif said.

What they did have, however, was work ethic.

Latif's mother worked three cleaning jobs to support her children. Latif and his sisters helped earn money any way they could.

"I remember these bottles of nail polish," Latif said. "We used to get these boxes, and they'd have 100 bottles of nail polish. While my mother was cleaning houses, my sisters and I would spend every night cleaning those bottles."

It took Latif and his sisters nearly three hours to finish one box, for which the family would earned $5.

Building blocks

At night after school Latif and his sisters also worked on learning English. "We would spend hours every night reading, starting with little picture books like 'Dora the Explorer,'" Latif said. Soon Latif was reading works by Dale Carnegie, Aristotle and Abraham Lincoln.

"I knew that I wanted to read books to better my public speaking," he said. "I knew I had to do this to be in a position to help people.

"My ultimate goal is to return to Afghanistan and participate in government there. It's been a war-torn country for 30 years, and it's about time they had a leader step up."

Latif joined the Police Explorers, a program in which students can learn the ropes of police work. Latif rose through the ranks, eventually becoming captain and receiving honors from multiple chiefs. "All these things, working my way up in the Police Explorers program, reading these books, learning public speaking, running for senior class president, have given me back the confidence that was taken away from me when I was younger."

Looking forward

Latif said the last few days at the Panetta Institute taught him that he's going to need more than just confidence.

"I came into this position thinking I had all the skills I needed," Latif said. "But I've realized there's a lot more to it than that. I realized I'm the student president for 30,000 students. I'm managing a $15 million budget."

For Latif, one of the highlights of the week was hearing from Maj. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson, who was deployed to Afghanistan twice in the past five years. "Nicholson spoke about leaders needing two kinds of pills, a pill of confidence and a pill of humility. "Every morning I woke up and thought, 'Have I taken my pills yet?'"